A white criminal record outperforms a clean black record in job callbacks

Evidence

Today almost 60 percent of prisoners are white, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Yet a report from the Brennan Center for Justice states that after their release, “white people who have a prison record see their earnings trend upwards, while formerly imprisoned Black…people experience a relatively flat earnings trajectory.” A white job applicant with a criminal record is more likely to receive a job callback than a black applicant with no criminal history. Black Americans with no criminal record earn less than their white peers with a record. Mass incarceration impacts not just those who are incarcerated but also the people they have left behind. The Prison Policy Initiative estimates the annual cost of mass incarceration borne by family members is almost $3 billion, a disproportionate amount of which impacts black Americans. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 428

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the exact Brennan Center methodology and whether the callback study generalizes across regions and industries — a strong objector would attack data quality here.